Crashing Waiters Corporate Dinner Entertainment

As I write from my office, I am looking at 300 spatulas, 300 wooden spoons, 100 frying pans, 100 chopping boards and a very large box of chef hats! We are very accustomed to being surrounded by newly-purchased mountains of kitchen paraphernalia, and so it takes us aback when someone like the postman or a visitor can’t understand what on earth we do with all these things. I thought it might be of interest to explain how they are used in one of our most popular corporate entertainment activities.

About eight years ago, there was huge interest and demand for the many surprise singing operatic waiters that infiltrated corporate dinners. We saw an opportunity to expand and adapt this format, and our Crashing Waiters dinner entertainment option was born.

Our team, dressed as waiters, mingle with the real venue staff during the early part of your meal. This prepares the ruse for later.

At the allotted time, our fake Maître d’ starts a welcome speech that is soon interrupted by our fake waiter tripping up, creating an enormous crashing sound. As you can imagine, this is a huge shock to the diners. Then, more waiters and waitresses, who were innocently standing by tables, start to perform a ‘Stomp’ style kitchen percussion performance.

If that wasn’t enough of a surprise, we then have pre-made bags of kitchen utensils delivered to each dining table. Our Maître d’ becomes a maestro conductor, who creates an amazing kitchen utensil orchestra with the diners, using overlapping rhythms and injecting fun and drama into the proceedings. All of this happens before dessert arrives. This really is ‘playing for your supper!’

The final surprise is that diners keep all their utensils as a parting gift. So they all go home with their pink washing-up brushes, wooden spoons and frying pans as a reminder of the evening.

Creating these pre-made bags of utensils is a task in itself. Firstly, they have to be purchased. Trying to navigate three shopping trolleys full of kitchen utensils is one thing, but answering the countless questions by bemused passing customers is another! Finally, we face the raised eyebrows of the cashiers as they see our never ending convoy of full trolleys. As it’s often multiples of the same items, they have a big life decision to make. Should they scan one, trust you and multiply the numbers you tell them, or should they make you count out every single item, much to the horror of the customers behind you?

All the effort is worth it in the end, when we create a room full of totally-engaged people playing rhythms together and having fun. So, at your next corporate dinner, keep a look out for wobbly venue staff carrying too many pots and pans, as they might just be our Crashing Waiters!